A variety of processes are known that may be suitable for processing solid waste. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,142,557, M. MacDuffie; U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,394, Fisk; U.S. Pat. No. 5,702,499, Timmenga; U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,766, Breckenridge; U.S. Pat. No. 6,569,332, Ainsworth; U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,662, Pollock; U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,534, McDowell; U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,801, Nishimura; U.S. Patent No., Carin; U.S. Pat. No. 7,481,940, Clifford; U.S. Pat. No. 7,553,410, Chennault; U.S. Pat. No. 7556737, Zhang; U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0289356, Burnett; and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0314828, Campbell.
However applicants believe there is no known process that is suitable for both anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic processing of solid and liquid waste, where conditions of the processing can be changed “on the fly”. It is desirable to quickly change from anaerobic to aerobic or from aerobic to anaerobic to control the output from the process depending on feed stock and desired output.
The present invention is directed to a system that satisfies this need.